Worship Songs
by Krisian Rose
Summary: Kurt Wagner, aka Nightcrawler, meets a band of mutant teenagers... literally. But, what happens when the anti-mutant protests go too far and Kurt's new friends are put in danger? How far will he go to help them?


A/N: Okey-tay. This would be my first attempt at an X-Men fanfic. Just a note: I'm not even going to attempt to write any dialects, so you're gonna have to make them up in your head. Have fun with that. XP

**Disclaimer: **I own neither the X-Men nor the Institute in which they reside. I do own the band and all of its members. [I made them all up, so if they sound like something familiar, it's by pure freaky coincidence.]__

* * *

The Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters was never really a quiet place. Then, any place filled with teenagers would not be a quiet place. The fact that the Institute was full of _mutant_ teenagers made it that much worse. The students were either mystified, amused, or curious about their newfound powers, which made for chaos. Someone was always showing off or exploring his or her power, and things would get broken, or destroyed, or set on fire, or something of the like. Today was no different. It was a Saturday afternoon, so chaos reigned.

Kurt Wagner, better known as Nightcrawler, had been sitting in a tree on the school grounds earlier that day, leafing through a book, and enjoying the soft morning noises that he knew would soon be gone once the students were awake. The chaos was not something Kurt enjoyed. After living in that lonely, quiet Boston church for so long, the masses of people and noise they brought took a little getting used to. Once the students started emerging, Kurt decided it would be best to stop his reading for the day and escape before someone uprooted his tree. In the month he had been at the Institute, it had happened to him before and it had not been fun.

Now, Kurt wandered the dormitory halls, which were all but abandoned. It was, after all, a beautiful Saturday afternoon and anyone in their right mind would want to be outside. Kurt paused and looked out one of the hall windows. A group of students were _trying _to play a game of power-free football. It wasn't really working out. Logan was acting as referee, and he did not look pleased. He was constantly barking out reprimands every time a student, either intentionally or by accident, used their powers. Kurt chuckled to himself. Logan was an interesting man. He would've expected refereeing a student football game to be more Scott's forte than Logan's, but then, Scott had not been himself since Alkali Lake. He had become very sullen and solitary, and there were days where he could mask it perfectly and go on with life, but more often than not he made a point to stay away from any unnecessary company.

Everyone felt the effects of Jean's loss, but none more than Scott.

"Hi Mr. Wagner."

At the sound of the sweet, southern-accented voice behind him, Kurt turned away from the window. "Please, call me Kurt. I am not one of your teachers."

Rogue smiled at him. "I was heading down to get some lunch, would you like anything?" She brushed a lock of white hair behind her ear.

"No, but thank you," Kurt replied. Rogue had made it her mission to make Kurt feel as welcome as he possibly could since his arrival. She figured it was the least she could do. Kurt had saved her life after all. Giving a short nod at his reply, Rouge headed off to the kitchen. Kurt smiled after her. She was a very nice young woman.

His thoughts were interrupted by a rather loud surge of music coming from a nearby room. Kurt jumped slightly and, after regaining his composure, went to investigate. He pushed the door open ever so slightly, revealing an all out band set up at one end of the room, which consisted of five members – four boys and one girl. The boys were all laughing uproariously while the girl was staring daggers at the young man with an electric guitar in his hand.

"Josiah!" She raged. "Don't you _ever _do that again! I should kill you for that!" The others merely continued their laughter.

Kurt pushed the door open the rest of the way. "Ahem," he said. All laughter immediately ceased and the students stared at him. Kurt had seen a couple of the band members around the school before, but knew very little about any of them.

"Hello," the girl said, breaking the silence. "I know you. You're Kurt Wagner, aren't you?" When Kurt nodded, she continued. "Ms. Munroe told us about you."

"Ah," Kurt said in understanding, stepping into the room. The band exchanged glances at Kurt's appearance. They'd never seen a mutant quite like him.

"Erm… what brings you to my room?" The boy on bass asked. He was fairly tall, with bleached blond hair and a mouthful of braces.

"Oh," Kurt replied. "I heard music."

"If you can call it music," the girl said, throwing a sidelong glance at the boy on guitar again. He grinned mischievously and the girl let out an annoyed sigh. "Anyway, I'm Darcy. I sing lead for this bunch of miscreants." She was of average hight, with very short auburn curls that were pinned and gelled back. She motioned to the boy on electric guitar. "That's Josiah, he's a menace."

"Menace? Me?" Josiah replied in mock innocence. He was rather nice-looking, and very tall, with longish blond-brown hair that had a slight curl to it. He had a playful smile and dark eyes.

"Yes you," Darcy said shortly. "That's Ryan," she continued, indicating the boy on bass.

Ryan motioned to his instrument. "And this is Auntie Eloise," he said. Kurt chuckled.

"Oh, yes, how could I forget Auntie Eloise?" Darcy replied. "He names all his instruments," she explained. "Right, um… that's Jake." The boy behind the keyboard waved. He was very short, with dark brown hair. "The that's Russel over there." Russel was sitting well way from the rest of the band, and acoustic guitar on his lap. He was slightly heavier than the other boys and had short dirty blond hair.

Kurt raised an eyebrow. "Why are you all the way over there?"

Russel chuckled. "I have to be. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to play _anything._" When Kurt continued to give him a confused look, he said. "Here, watch." He wandered over to a nearby nightstand that had a lamp and a digital alarm clock perched upon it. He touched a finger to the clock. The numbers flickered sporadically and the alarm began buzzing. Russel slowly backed away as the alarm got louder and louder, and the numbers got brighter and brighter. Suddenly, a few sparks flew and the clock stopped working altogether, and a small stream of smoke drifted from it. Russel chuckled. "That's why they call me Sabotage," he said, referring to his mutant name.

"Obviously," Kurt replied.

"Dude, that was _my _clock!" Ryan said. "You just fried it!"

Russel shrugged. "You can get a new one." Ryan merely rolled his eyes and began playing a few chords on his bass.

"Ahem! What about me?"

Darcy glanced over her shoulder at the drum set. "Oh, right, that's JD."

Kurt was a little baffled. There was no one there. He looked a little closer, and what he saw baffled him even more – a pair of drumsticks floating in mid-air. "Hello," a voice called from behind the drums. There was moment of slightly bemused silence as the drumsticks twirled around idly. Suddenly, "Ah… ah… _achoo!"_ came from behind the drums and another boy appeared. He had longish blond-streaked brown hair, which he brushed away from his striking blue eyes. JD sniffed. "I _hate _allergy season," he declared.

Darcy glanced from JD to Kurt and back again, and then she just burst out laughing. "I'm sorry!" She laughed. "But the look on your face is so _priceless!"_

Kurt couldn't help but laugh too. He was beginning to like this little band of students.

* * *

After a little explaining about JD's sudden appearance, the rest of the band had gladly explained their powers to Kurt. JD went by the name of Stealth, and could become invisible at will… almost. He had a hard time controlling it when he sneezed, and when he got too into his drumming.

Darcy called herself Chameleon, and she could change the color of her skin and anything she was touching. She had a bit of trouble with controlling her color changing when she got too emotional.

Josiah could manipulate sound waves. He could make them deafeningly loud, or shut them off completely, and he was the reason for the loud outburst of music Kurt had heard in the hall. He called himself Echo, but Darcy liked to call him Echo-sketch just to annoy him.

Ryan's power reminded Kurt a little of Mystique's. He called himself Morpheus and could become any animal he touched. He said he's first figured it out when the family cat jumped into his lap and startled him so bad, he turned into the family cat. Needless to say, he didn't like cats after that.

Jake, who, as it turned out, was JD's little brother, went by the name of Shadow. He could do just that, become a shadow and slip in windows or under doors.

Russel, alias Sabotage, had already demonstrated his power. He would practically destroy anything electric that he touched, so he had resigned to the acoustic guitar and to riding a bike, since a car was out of the question. Everywhere he went, he had to have someone else turn the lights on for him. Kurt felt kind of sorry for him. Especially since almost everything nowadays was electric in some way or other.

Kurt enjoyed their company, until he heard a very familiar voice in his head;_ 'I need all of you in my office, now.'_ The professor.Kurt just left, but he promised he would come back to listen later. Something about the professor's tone did not sound as though this would be a pleasant meeting.

* * *

A/N: Ta-da! Ok, please review, but no flames! I like fire, but not that kind of fire.


End file.
